Gotra literally means “Cow-Pen” or “Cow-Shed”. All the families sharing a common cow-pen (where you kept cattle during the night) were generally from a same extended family and hence marriage among them was strictly forbidden.

Gotra’s are like the clans of Irish people. In the days gone by, Gotra was the basis of deciding matrimonial alliances. In order to avoid inbreeding, persons from the same clan or Gotra were forbidden to marry. In addition to this there were certain other rules also.

Due to the expantion when one family was divided, the new branches emerged which are known as Gan Gotra and accordinglly 51 GanGotra came into existance. There coming generations were in lacs, however at present we have somewhere around 100 Gotra.

Hi Rakesh
I live in Singapore and am trying to establish my roots. My family name is Rai and I belong to the Sobarneeya Gotra. My family migrated from the village of Tiha Muhammadpur (commonly called Nauwar Tiha near Barhalganj), Gorakhpur district, in 1958. Can you point me in the right direction so that I can trace my family tree? Appreciate any help I can get. Thanks and warmest regards — Hakikat Rai

hey im frm Bhardwaj gotra,plz can you tell me more about this gotra,frm where we came (which state)and like what position bhardwajs have in brahmins and like who was great rishi Bhardwaj and what were his contributions in hinduism or brahminism…plz tell me …i want to learn more on this…

bhumihar — etymologically : bhumi= land, hara= take away(or steal)(and not ‘make’, as you mentioned). http://vedabase.net/h/hara
though there are many synonyms, none match with ‘giving’. ‘Hara’ also means ‘destroyer’ which is evident as one of the name of Lord Shiva.